7/16/05 - Climbed the standard route after backpacking from the 2WD TH and camping near South Colony Lakes. Dropped my camera and was able to rescue it but not the memory card :(. After fetching a new one at camp we capped off the day with an easy climb up Humboldt.

7/17/05 - Climbed the standard route again after climbing Crestone Peak so I could retake the pictures :)

2/21/09 - Winter ascent, standard route. Backpacked in along Cottonwood Creek. My most challening winter summit to date - quite an epic climb. Simulclimbed up the south couloirs, proper anchor/belay was necessary occasionally. Couloir crossover made for a spicy crux. Rapped/climbed down from 13,800 ft in the dark.

12/2/12 - Backpacked to South Colony Lakes, climbed Needle's standard route, and traversed to Crestone Peak. Very dry for December.

What a beautiful and challenging mountain! Originally planned to do the traverse from Crestone Peak, but high winds pushed us do the east to west gulley on the Needle. Climbed with long time climbing partner, Alan. Went on to climb Humbolt Peak that evening in beautiful Sangre de Cristo weather.

I never thought I would climb this peak when I first saw it on Roach's 14ers book. I have come a long way since then. The rock is outstanding and exhilerating! Excellent holds made this a pure joy! I'll be back for the Arete!

Started up at 6:25AM. Route finding isn't the easiest on this peak, but prevailed with help from friends I met along the way; reached summit at 10:25. Rising clouds socked-in a good portion of the views from the summit. Started back down at 10:45 and back to the TH at 2:08PM as it started to rain. My 41st 14'er...sweet!!

From camp at Cottonwood Creek, climbed the South Face of Crestone Peak, performed the traverse to Crestone Needle, then descended the Needle's South Face back to camp. This was the final of the Four Great Fourteener Traverses for me. I thought that route-finding on this traverse was the most difficult of the four, especially near the Black Gendarme. I stayed on the summit for only 30 seconds due to a nasty storm cloud hovering directly overhead.

Started out as an early morning hike up to Broken Hand Pass for a bite of breakfast at sunrise because the rest of my crew decided not to climb that day. One member of my crew joined me about an hour after the sun came up and we decided to make a summit attempt. We pushed up the East Gully and were off route because the difficulty exceeded the trip reports assessment of it being class 3 & 4. We continued on up for several hundred feet on some loose cobblestone. I pulled off a piece twice during the climb. Quite scary for me. I nearly decided to call it off. After gathering my wits, pushed on to the summit. Was so glad I did. What a wonderful climb. Even though we were off route we both enjoyed it a great deal. The mountain goats made us feel bad by how easy they made the climb look. Fantastic day, elated at the end.

Such a fun route. We ascended the Red Couloir after waiting 3 days for the weather to be favorable. The last part of climbing the Needle was a blast and required some difficult route finding because visibility was down to ~20 feet. An absolutely stellar mountain.

I started before first light so I could complete the traverse to the Needle and be off the mountain by early afternoon. Fortunately I was successful and back in camp before noon, because wicked thunderstorms rolled in and unleased rain and electricity from 12 to 2. I know of at least one climbing party that would've been in the thick of things if they'd stuck to their original schedule. I thought of them all afternoon, but still don't know if they turned around or pressed through the storm.

Traversed Peak to Needle, lots of fun scrambling on the traverse, especially right below the summit. Descended the standard route, but withouth switching gullies, just stayed in the 'east gully', some nice 4th class in there!